7 Year Itch

On August 19th 2000, I launched David-Carter.com. Back then I didn't know what I would do with the domain, or whether I could ever make a living online.

This site has been the backbone of my domaining work, though I don't pay it that much attention and don't put much effort into it.

I think that the fact it's been around so long is the key to it's high ranking in Google and other search engines, but it's not what it used to be - in the early days of it's launch, I could get this site top ten ranked for just about any search term I wanted.

I was just looking back at an archived page (you can too - www.archive.org) and though embarrassingly amateurish, there is no doubt that this site laid much of the foundation for what I learned and put into practice along the way.

On the old front page, I asked this question;

"What is the number one site on Alta Vista for the search term, "Domain Name Resales"?

The answer was David-Carter.com because at that time, it was easy to get top ranking.

I remember being number one for "search engine placement" and "top ten search engine placement" at one time too - which must have really pissed off those people who made a living at that kind of thing.

Somehow, I doubt that I could replicate this now in such a competetive market, which is why I now concentrate on specific vertical markets where I know there is little SEO educated competition.

All along, I have held the belief that domain names hold the key to making a successful living online.

Each one I own represents a business opportunity - either right now or at some point in the future.

This is the reason that I won't sell my names cheaply. Unlike many of the tyre kickers who come enquiring after my names, I have already seen the potential in them. I also know how to develop them, promote them and get them highly ranked in search engines.

So why sell that cheaply?

Forget Internet Marketing Gurus, Read This

This article in DN Journal demonstrates everything that is great about the Internet and domain names in general.

If you haven't seen it yet, it's about Frank Schilling, probably the world's most successful domainer.

Frank gives tips and advice almost daily via his excellent SevenMile blog. He does it freely too, as do the other people whose blogs I link to here.

Compare that approach to the many money-grabbing Internet Marketing gurus who do nothing for free - unless it's to tempt you to buy their latest get rich seminars and dvd packages. Selling those packages is their real secret of success. Everything else is just packaging.

People like Frank are a true inspiration and well done to Ron on another excellent edition of DN Journal.

Example of a quick and dirty Adsense lander

There's lots of talk in various forums lately about whether parking companies can be trusted to be transparent with their figures and whether there are better ways to monetise domain portfolios.
I've never been one for parking my domains, as I don't consider my portfolio to be particularly parking friendly - in so much as they don't get masses of natural type-in traffic.

The names in my own portfolio tend to be targeted towards particular niches that I know a little about, or have some kind of interest in.

For a more in-depth look at how parking may or may not benefit you, I suggest you read this post at Rick Schwatrz's blog.

Personally, on domains that I am testing (usually to see if I can get them ranked, or if I am considering selling them), I do a one or two page mini site using XSitePro.

I then add some content that I always write myself and then sprinkle in some Google Adsense and maybe even a sales message.

If people then happen to stumble upon the site, they at least have something original to read and I get a chance of getting a few cents from Google.

The approach isn't rocket science, but since most parking companies are simply syndicating ads from Google and Yahoo anyway, I just question the logic of accepting 65% of the click value when I can take 100% from the source.

Of course, the parking companies say that they achieve higher rates per click.

I've heard that argument many times. However, as Rick points out in his blog today, the parking companies are not exactly transparent about their earnings from other people's domain names.

Google isn't transparent either, but at least there's an element of control in what you can do with your own domain name.

Here's an example I knocked out quickly this morning. http://www.professionalfeeinsurance.co.uk/ (and yes, I have the .com too).

These sites won't win any design awards, but they'll earn a few pennies along the way before the domains are either developed fully or sold.

UPDATE 30 DECEMBER 2007

I was checking my stats on professionalfeeinsurance.co.uk today and was surprised to see a few hits from Google.

As usual, I checked the search terms and found that it's already listed on the front page for a few relevant terms, including of course, "professional fee insurance".

Just goes to show that XSitePro does exactly what I claimed it could do.

How Is Your Project Management?

I don't know about you, but I am not a great manager of people or projects. I forget things from one day to the next and usually have so many ideas for my domains floating around that I rarely achieve anything.

But, I need stuff doing, so I take the outsourcing route and have had positive and negative experiences along the way. Mostly negative, simply because I am so poor at managing people.

Recently, I began working with a few new developers and one introduced me to a wonderful system called Basecamp.

It's a project management system that allows me to specify projects, set project milestones, time deadlines and provides me with a one-stop communication centre that can accommodate as many projects and developers as I wish.

I am so impressed with it, that I am considering offering development services and taking on a few clients, as this system makes it easy to manage projects, people and clients, even if they are on the other side of the world.

See it yourself at http://www.basecamphq.com/ - and no, that's not an affiliate link, it's a genuine endorsement.